FG ready to welcome deported Nigerians from US — NiDCOM

The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission has said that the Federal Government is ready to welcome deported Nigerians from the United States.

The Director of Media and Corporate Affairs of the commission, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, in an interview with Vanguard on Tuesday evening, said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was in charge of such development.

Balogun further said FG had already set up an inter-agency committee to handle the matter should Nigerians be deported from the US.

“The Federal Government has set up an inter-agency committee, comprising the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NiDCOM, Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and office of the National Security Adviser, NSA, should there be mass deportation of Nigerians from the US.”

However, the NiDCOM spokesperson stressed that its commission was not aware of Nigerians in America being processed for deportation.

 Recall that about 3,690 Nigerians in the United States are faced with deportation as Donald Trump crackdown on illegal immigrants in the country.

In the document compiled by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Enforcement and Removal Operations and sighted by our correspondent on Tuesday, the agency revealed the data is broken down by nationality and number of people faced with deportation.

It also clarified that as of November 24, 2024, there are 1,445,549 non-citizens on ICE’s non-detained docket with final removal orders.

In the document titled “Noncitizens on the ICE Non-Detained Docket with Final Orders of Removal by Country of Citizenship,” Mexico and El Salvador top the list of nations facing the most deportation, with 252,044 and 203,822, respectively.

The ICE is charged with the responsibility of protecting America from cross-border crime and illegal immigration that threaten national security.

Meanwhile, on Thursday last week, hundreds of migrants were arrested, and others flew out of the country on military aircraft as Donald Trump’s promised mass deportation operation got underway.

The PUNCH reports Nigerians and other African illegal immigrants in the United States may be the next target for deportation by the American government.